Susan Perkins: Altamonte police still searching for her killer

Altamonte Springs police have never given up on finding the man responsible for Susan Perkins' death.

Today – the sixth anniversary of the crime – they are calling attention to the case in hopes someone will come forward with information that will help solve the cold case.

Perkins suffered fatal head injuries when she jumped from the trunk of her moving car to escape a captor.

The 34-year-old Perkins was helping Robin Barber tint some windows inside a salon she owned on Maitland Avenue about 8:30 p.m. Aug. 31, 2004, when a masked man entered carrying a rifle.

The man ordered the two women into Perkins' red Ford Focus and made her drive to the Washington Mutual Bank at 500 E. Altamonte Drive. Perkins was forced to use Barber's PIN to check the balance on her checking account. He told her to withdraw $600, but the ATM would only allow her to get $300. Then he had her check the balance on Barber's savings account and remove $180 – most of what was in it.

Still not satisfied with his take, he told Perkins to try to get another $300 from the checking account, but she was unsuccessful.

The withdrawals were made at a drive-through ATM machine and the suspect sat in the back seat and made sure to sit back so he would not be captured on security cameras.

After they pulled away from the ATM, the women were ordered to get into the trunk of the car.

In a 2004 interview, Barber told the Orlando Sentinel that Perkins convinced the man that she needed to get out and open the trunk with a key. While his attention was on Perkins, Barber said, she stepped from the car and started slowly backing away.

"I was going to run," she said. She tried to get Perkins to do the same.

"I'm telling her to run, but he kept telling her to tell me to get in the trunk.

"Run," she pleaded to Perkins. "He's not going to shoot you in the parking lot."

But Perkins wouldn't because she knew there was a latch inside the trunk that would allow the women to open it, Barber said. They climbed in and the gunman pushed it shut. The trunk was crammed with beach chairs, and the women could hardly move.

As the car pulled onto State Road 436, the women opened the trunk a few inches and Barber waved her hand outside, hoping to attract attention. But when the car hit a bump, the trunk flew up and slammed back down.

She said the man realized what the women were doing and made a hard right turn onto Boston Avenue. They opened the trunk again and Perkins rolled out, she said.

Barber estimates the car was traveling 35 to 40 mph when she jumped from the trunk. "I hit the ground and landed on my arm," she said.

The car was going into a 90-degree turn in the road as Perkins tried to get out. Barber said she thinks her friend lost her balance and was thrown to the pavement. "When her head hit the cement, it just cracked," Barber said. "She wasn't moving."

Perkins was rushed to Florida Hospital Altamonte a few blocks away and then flown to Orlando Regional Medical Center, where doctors found no brain activity. The single mother of two boys who loved country music and liked to dance died the next day.

Barber believes the man might have been in the military. "He was just real clean, direct in what he wanted," she said in the interview, adding he laced his sentences with the same expletive her fellow Marines used, yet he didn't use other vulgar or profane language toward the women.

The suspect was black, with a medium build. He was described by Barber as being in his early 20s and 5 feet, 7 inches to 6 feet tall. He was wearing a mask and a long-sleeve jacket that resembled a military type jacket. The suspect may have smelled of motor oil.

The family has set up several Internet sites: http://www.myspace.com/inlovingmemoryofsusan, http://www.facebook.com/people/Susan-Perkins/1605595136, http://susanperkins.blogspot.com/ and http://www.facebook.com/inbox/readmessage.php?t=131318971929&f=1&e=-12#/group.php?gid=218688135327.